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The Beatles Complete on Ukulele Dot Com

Apparently I'm late to the party on this one: thebeatlescompleteonukulele.com is a web project devoted to re-recording every Beatles song, using ukuleles, and posting the songs for free online. This is their Mission Statement:

At www.TheBeatlesCompleteOnUkulele.com we will release a new recording of a Beatles song* featuring a different artist every Tuesday. A short essay will coincide with every recording and each performance will include a ukulele.

The project began on January 20, 2009 (Inauguration Day) and will conclude on July 31, 2012. (The eve of the London Olympics)

*we consider a Beatles song to be one of the 185 original compositions released by The Beatles between 1962 and 1970.

And guess what, they've been doing just that for nearly two years now (they just released song #97). What's surprising is the quality of the songs. While song trend towards kinda-crappy or clearly-recorded-on-a-lark, there are a lot of gems here. Some favorites: "All You Need is Love" performed by Nikki Gregoroff; "Help!" (with an "Imagine" riff added) performed by The Drastic Mono Band; "Here Comes the Sun" performed by Holly Palmer; "Don't Let Me Down" performed by Craig Greenberg; "Don't Pass Me By performed by Kenny White; "Rain" performed by Wang Chung (yes, really); and "Yellow Submarine" performed by The Fort Greene Children's Choir (which includes a bunch of 4-year-olds!).

Also of interest to Beckett fans: a version of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" performed by Victor Spinetti in the style of Krapp's Last Tape. Madness, wonderful madness.

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Also on Mental Floss:

DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)